Plastic Bags
China's largest producer of plastic shut down because of a government effort to decrease waste. Businesses will no longer be allowed to hand out free plastic bags for purchases. The law will begin on June 1st, two months before the olympics. 10,000 people were fired from the plastic bag factory. The factory produced around 250,000 tons of plastic bags each year. I think this is definitely something the United States should consider. I take my own bags when I buy groceries, and Kroger takes a whole 4 cents off your purchase for every bag you bring. I think it's really sad because grocery stores have the potential to eliminate alot of wasted plastic bags. I think if Kroger took 25 cents off your bill for every bag you brought, a huge amount of people would bring their own bags. Maybe the United States should learn from China on this law and force Americans to use their own reusable bags.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/china.plastic.bags.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/china.plastic.bags.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
posted by Jordan Cole at 10:33 PM
1 Comments:
I think that it's a great idea to limit the use of those flimsy plastic bags. I also agree that the U.S. should take more drastic steps in cutting it's waste products. It's even a great idea for grocers to offer incentives to bringing your own bags. I would definately be more inclined to reuse bags if there was an incentive to do so.
On the flipside of this story, what about the 10,000 people who will be out of a job? All of a sudden out of nowhere and I presume without warning, those people are without jobs. I find it difficult to swallow that all of a sudden, a city's lifeline can disappear in an instant. Can you imagine if both UPS and Ford completely left the city of Louisville? 10,000 jobs lost in the city of Louisville...or even the Commonwealth of Kentucky, it would be disastrous.
Luckily, the government does not have "that" kind of power over businesses. The government as well as the business community should take a more active role in providing or suggesting more efficient ways to do business as usual.
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